1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lawn mower having a grass catcher for collecting grass clippings transported on air flows from a mower unit. More particularly, the invention relates to a lawn mower carrying an engine rearwardly of a vehicle body, and a grass catcher upwardly of a hood covering the engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A lawn mower of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,398, for example. The known lawn mower has a mower unit disposed forwardly of a vehicle body, an engine rearwardly of the vehicle body, and a grass catcher suspended laterally of the engine from a position upwardly thereof for collecting grass clippings transported from the mower unit. Air flows carrying the grass clippings are discharged through an opening defined in a front wall of a cover placed over the grass catcher.
A further lawn mower of the same type is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1989-262643 filed Oct. 7, 1989 and owned by Applicant. This lawn mower has a grass catcher disposed on right and left sides of an engine hood in a way to straddle the hood. Air flows having carried grass clippings to the grass catcher are discharged downwardly and rearwardly from rear ends of covers placed on respective grass collecting bags.
With the lawn mower disclosed in the U.S. patent, however, the discharge air flows directly reach a driver's region, thereby to aggravate working environment of the driver and environment of cooling air intake for the engine. With the lawn mower disclosed in the above Japanese application also, the discharge air flows containing large quantities of trash and dust encroach on the driver's section since the lawn mower moves slowly during a grass cutting operation. This brings about the inconveniences of aggravating working environment of the driver, and clogging cooling air intake openings of the engine to cause an overheat of the engine.